What do you feed your kids?

[Katherine]

I've been making a real effort to be greener etc in our house this year but one place I'm still lax on is the kids dinners. I'm not a cook, DH does all of that and we always try to have some "leftovers" to reheat for the kids the following day, usually in the steamer.

But often we don't and then I usually end up resorting to the freezer for fishfingers etc.

I know Annabel Karmel has done books on this but before I go out and buy and I thought I would check what "Healthy" mums give to their kids.

I'm looking for things which are quick and easy to prepare as I work from home and always end up leaving it late to do their tea.

What are your fav suggestions?

Hi Katherine - one thing we do is try to cook vast quantities of food for us and then stick the leftovers in the freezer for our dd. That way you always have back up supplies. Good candidates are things like cauliflower cheese, veggie or meat bolognese sauces, mashed potato which you can then mix with some frozen fish - we cook extra salmon, mackerel etc and then freeze it in meal-sized portions.

For quick suppers from scratch - scrambled eggs are great, baked beans and baked potatoes (assuming you have a microwave). Also frozen veggies are brilliant - really healthy and quick to cook - my dd is a big fan of frozen peas, sweetcorn, baby broad beans.

You can't always be organised enough to have leftovers, so building up a freezer store of food is great. We have a deal where my dp cooks for us, and I cook stuff for freezing for our dd. The Annabel Karmel books have some great ideas and most of the recipes are incredibly easy.

Fried egg on toast; baked beans on toast (poss with cheese mixed in); spaghetti hoops; pasta (on its own/ with pesto sauce (Nigella suggests adding a cube of frozen minced spinach into pesto!)/ with cheese); bananas; satsumas; broccoli florets; corn cobs (the frozen minii ones are v. handy); mini babybel cheeses; yoghurts (mini muller fruit corners are especially popular); grapes; popcorn; salami; sausages.
I cringe, but its the truth...
Every so often I try something more 'recipe' like,or giving him our leftovers, but nope, he's not interested. Four slices of salami and a banana might not be the most obvious tea for a 2year old, but its what he likes and it is NO Effort!!!

Katherine, my fastest and most popular healthy suppers (all under 5 minutes):

Boiled eggs and dippies (with orange/apple juice/something containing vit c to help with iron absorption) followed by yoghurt/fruit
Scrambled egg on toast - 30 secs + stir then another 30 secs in the microwave while toast is doing
Pasta with tomato ketchup (I buy organic and it's really quite healthy - ds turns his nose up at any other type of sauces)
Agree, baked beans on toast or with baked potato, though my ds won't eat potato.
corn on the cob
Bits and pieces on a plate: cut up apple, satsuma, banana, mini sandwiches, yoghurt, nuts, whatever I've got really but the idea is that it's a mixture and a surprise
Eggy bread - scramble an egg and dip bread in it and fry. Good with beans.
I'm sure there was another thread like this, I'll see if I can find it for you.

pasta, cream, frozen peas, torn up ham/left over chicken, parmesean cheese on top
"hammy pasta"
takes as long as cooking the pasta

Egg fried rice - frozen rice & veg (3 mins) with a sliced 1 egg omelette stirred in.

Quickies:
An avocado.
Toast and hummous.
Toasted sandwiches (we have one of those plastic bags that goes in the toaster, available thru Lakeland, and he puts the bits of whatever on the bread himself. Cheese, ham, tomato or hoummous)
Asparagus spears and mini-sweetcorns to dip in hummous...or mashed avocado
Ready-made pancakes from Tesco filled with cheese, beans or whatever is available
and finally
SPAGHETTI HOOPS! (the Heinz ones have less additives than those Sainsbury's Parrot ones.)

Annabelle Karmel does a great, easy receipe for a baked bean pie - it's basically baked beans, spinach and mashed potato.

Other than that healthy/easy things I make Charlotte that I can think of now are:

Chicken cut into bite size pieces and boiled (!) in apple juice with mashed potato and possibly add a carrot of something in to be mashed and then steamed carrots, baby sweetcorn

Bit of fish poached with milk etc served with veggies etc

pasta & pesto

pasta & red pepper pesto with baked salmon

mackerel fillets mashed up into a baked potato

a pizza can be healthy if you add veggies on top of the cheese & tomato, like strips of red / yellow peppers and mushrooms etc

sandwiches with cream cheese and grated carrot et cetc on wholemeal bread

tuna and cheese melted sandwich

bolied/scrambled egg with marmite soldiers

fishcakes and veggies

and then I make stews/ chilli (seperta her's off at stage of adding the chilli powder), spag bol, etc etc and make enough to feed small army and freexe it in small freezer bags.

She also eats a lot of fruit and organic ready bought snacks to save time. Waitrose do a Peter Rabbit range of baxed potao crisp and vegetable crisps.

katherine - there have been quite a lot of useful threads on this subject so try having a quick search too.

chicken with mash gravy and carrots
chicken curry and rice (make a big batch and freeze)
chilli and rice (as above)
baked bean mash and cheese - so easy and always a winner!
pasta shapes with tom sauce and cheese
omelette
sausages
macoroni cheese
cheese, crumpets , grapes

Mango, pear, apple, banana, fromage frais ambrosia splat, custard

best thing is make loads of mash and keep some to give to children with other stuff that you have in (beans, hoops, left over meat, gravy etc.) and sauce to help it down. Baby has it pureed too!

I suffer from fussy children but try to feed them healthily. Homemade chicken or turkey escalopes and fishfingers are really easy and can freeze. Take piece of chicken/turkey/small lump cod filet, dip in seasoned flour then beaten egg then homemade breadcrumbs (just whizz bread in blender/processor-I use wholemeal and thay havent noticed ). Then either brush with melted butter and bake or shallow fry in butter and sunflower oil.
cooked Spaghetti and grated cheese
Cooked rice/flaked tuna/grated cheese
DIY tortilla-heat tortilla and supply bowls of stuff (i use grated apple/carrot, sliced chicken/ham, tuna if you have less fussy eaters options are greater)

DD is 13.5 months and her current faves are

Tuna gunge (that's what I call it) - make a white sauce and chuck in a tin of tuna, tin of tomatoes and some frozen peas/sweetcorn/whatever veggies you have. For adults add lemon juice and tabasco & salt & pepper. She has it with rice or pasta or mash and I make loads and freeze it in little plastic cups.

Scrambled egg with smoked cod and broccoli (takes 2 mins)

Toasted crumpet with cream cheese

Mixed veggie/tomato pasta with cheese grated onto it.

Oh forgot, she also loves spanish tortilla (chuck whatever meat/cooked veggies/herbs/cheese/mushrooms you have into a non stick saucepan with a lid. Whisk up a couple of eggs and pour over. Put the lid on and cook on slow for about 10 mins until set. Turn it out like a cake. Is lovely cold from the fridge at 2am after too much wine...

The real favourite in my house at the moment is 'fajitas'. Buy a pack of mexican soft tortilla wraps, and a pack of three mixed peppers. Cut the peppers into strips and stir fry with a dollop of ketchup, dollop of honey and squirt of worcestershire sauce. Then let them spread some more ketchup in their wraps and put some of the veg in and wrap them up. They really love this, it only takes 5 mins, you can put anything in them really and they are fun to eat.

Shepherd's pie - grate a carrot and a courgette into the mince, and you won't notice it. It also has tomato puree and onion, so healthy with probably a portion of veg per serving. I make a huge one and freeze someportions for ds. He then has it with baked beans (or 'bee bees' as he calls them ).

Macaroni cheese is quick. Add onion into the cheese sauce, and slice tomatoes on the top.

Beans on toast is a fave in our house.

If you make a roast dinner at the weekend, again freeze several portions for your dd/ds.

Annabel Karmel is good, depending on the age of your child. I stopped even referring to it after ds was 1. I used it a lot when he was younger, purely to give me some ideas.

Another good recipe was a porridge oats/chicken and sweetcorn puree from a cheap book I bought in Tesco. Ds loved that when a baby.

Thanks guys. Lots of good ideas here. Should keep me going for a while. I give them lots of scrambled eggs but must try some more eggy variations. Thanks